Asic-miners for ZCash - ZEC mining

Zcash appeared in October 2016 as a Bitcoin with private transactions. The creators wanted to make a cryptocurrency where no one could track who sent what and how much. To do this, they used the Equihash algorithm, which was originally intended to protect against industrial mining. But, as is often the case, ASIC miners still appeared.

How Zcash mining works

Equihash is a fairly memory-intensive algorithm. It requires a lot of RAM for calculations. Blocks are created every 2.5 minutes, which is faster than Litecoin and much faster than Bitcoin with its 10 minutes.
The difficulty is recalculated after each block found through DigiShield V3. This approach prevents the network from “jumping” in block time, even if miners are turned on or off en masse. The ZEC exchange rate usually mirrors the movements of Bitcoin, but on a larger scale. If Bitcoin falls by 10%, Zcash may fall by 15-20%.
20% of the mined coins go directly to the development fund. This means that miners only receive 80% of the ZEC from the block. There are also halvings here, with the reward being halved every four years.

Which ASIC miners are currently relevant for Zcash?

Antminer Z15 is the main working tool for ZEC. It outputs 420,000 sol per second and consumes 1,510 watts. If we calculate the efficiency, we get about 3.6 joules per kilosol, which is not bad for Equihash.
The Z15 Pro is the same as the Z15, only twice as powerful. 840 ksol/s versus 420, but it also consumes 2556 watts of electricity. In terms of efficiency, it is about the same, just more hashrate in one case. For those who are saving space on the farm.
The Z11 and Z15 hydro versions are in a class of their own. They have liquid cooling instead of conventional fans. They are as quiet as a refrigerator, approximately 35-40 decibels compared to 70-75 in the air-cooled versions. If you mine at home or near your neighbors, this is a lifesaver.
Older models such as the Z9 are no longer worth considering. They consume too much electricity and are morally obsolete.

Is it worth mining ZEC now?

There are some pitfalls here. Zcash developers periodically raise the topic of switching to Proof-of-Stake. If this happens, all ASICs will become obsolete. There is no decision yet, but the risk is there.
On the other hand, ZEC is one of the few coins that really works with privacy. The team is actively developing the project, with regular updates. Fees are negligible, less than a cent per transaction.